Payouts from Hurricane Dorian could cost insurers between $US4 billion and $US8.5 billion ($5.9 billion and $12.5 billion), according to catastrophe modeller RMS.

Its loss estimates cover the US, Canada and the Caribbean.

Insured losses in the US will be between $500 million ($732 million) and $US1.5 billion ($2.2 billion). The estimate represents wind and storm surge damage, including losses to the National Flood Insurance Program.

“While Dorian caused material damage in several states, the overall impact to the US could have been much worse had the storm taken a different track,” North Atlantic Hurricane Models Senior Product Manager Jeff Waters said.

“We were fortunate that the majority of Dorian’s damaging winds and storm surge remained offshore as it tracked along the US coastline, before weakening, and eventually making landfall in North Carolina.”

Dorian was the first major storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. It began on August 22 and made landfall on September 8 in the US, significantly weaker after slamming the Bahamas as a maximum category-5 storm.